Topic: How do you explain war to school age kids? Posted: 05 January 2013 at 5:21pm

Salaam Alaikum.

So... this is a question for people who work with kids.

I will be giving a talk at church to the
kids church (ages 6-9) about Palestine, and have made a Powerpoint, but
this is the
first time I have tried to explain it to kids that young... I've given
talks to middle school students and it was possible without being too
graphic to explain the situation. I'm thinking of comparing it to
bullying, something I think most would be able to understand, and talk
about how our Palestinian friends and kids their age were picked on by
Israeli soldiers and people with guns. I don't think it makes sense
going too much into the history or politics since it would be over their
heads, but just keep it to something simple that they could relate to. I
also can't make it too graphic and talk about the horrific stories I
heard of people getting shot and my face getting smashed in with a metal
pipe.

I was asked to do this by our the childrens ministry
leader, since one of the core values of our church is "confrontation",
believe it or not. The theme is standing up against injustice. I'll be
talking about the situation in the West Bank, and what the groups (Christian Peacemaker Teams, International Solidarity Movement) I was
with did to confront the injustices against Palestinians, and how
Palestinians we met and encouraged and worked with were standing up for
their rights. I'm thinking of just keeping it simple and letting the
kids know that Palestinians we were with are being bullied by the
soldiers, and that Jesus tells us to stand up against bullying, and that
it's worth doing even if it sometimes is hard and may mean getting
hurt.

That is a very powerful video... reminds me of the stories we heard from a Palestinian Christian man in Bethlehem whose 8 year old son witnessed his 6 year old friend getting shot. We also walked Palestinian kids from school in Hebron, due to settler harrassment many feel unsafe to walk to their place of learning.

The presentation at church went well. I showed the kids the pictures from my blog (those that they would be able to handle) and made the comparison to bullying. I also shared stories of Palestinians we met who were standing up against the occupation by not using violence but also not giving in to the abuse and standing up for their rights. They took it in well, I think. I ended by challenging them to stand up against bullying in their schools. We also looked at verses in the Bible about being peacemakers and loving one's enemies, and how hard that can be.

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